Hunting for Hogwarts
by snowglobe3
Summary: What if no muggleborns receive a visit from the school, in an attempt to reduce the numbers entering magical society? Anyone who wants to enter the magic world needs to take initiative and figure out most everything on their own.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione Granger stared dumbly at the letter in her hands. She had gotten up to fetch the mail from the letterbox as she did every day in between her maths and science assignments. Usually, there was the normal assortments of bill and advertisements and the occasional note to her parents, but today there was a letter addressed for her. It was a large, smooth envelope addressed in a flowing hand. Why would somebody send something like this to somebody like her?

Unable to stop herself, she settled back in at her desk, and carefully opened the envelope, pulling out the letter inside. She took a moment to appreciate the aged look of the paper before the words that were on it fully sunk in.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? You are a witch? Was this some sort of poor joke? Hermione knew that magic wasn't anything outside of storybooks, though she did dearly love to read her fantasy books. What people had dismissed as magic in ancient times was easily explained by science now. Though whoever had forged the letter had done a rather good job with the details, she mused, looking at the supply list. A pointed hat and a magic wand? Basic enough. But scales for potion making and the titles of all the books? This scam went beyond the normal practical joke.

A line at the bottom of the letter caught her eye. "Please send your reply by owl."

Hermione laughed, and returned to the rest of her homework, eyes travelling back to the letter every so often. About to get up and head downstairs to her parents, she grabbed a piece of paper on a whim, scrawling a brief note on it before sliding over to the window. It'd be a good laugh, even though she knew she could hardly send a letter with an owl.

Feeling foolish, Hermione stuck her letter out the window and waved it around. As she had suspected, nothing happened. She sat and waited a few more minutes. Standing back up, she muttered under her breath, "What's a girl got to do to get a letter to Hogwarts?"

Hermione fell back into her seat as an owl rushed the window. Her heart pounded as it perched delicately in the window and stuck its leg out as if this sort of thing was perfectly natural. Which it most certainly wasn't. With unsure hands, Hermione slid the letter into the tube on the owl's leg. It flew away the moment she pulled her hand back.

She sat in the window, staring at where the owl had been, until her mother called her down to supper. Training an owl to collect the post was an awful lot of trouble to go through for a mere hoax.

She picked at her dinner. This was bringing up far too many questions that Hermione simply couldn't answer. She found her mind going in ridiculous directions, and she tried her best to reign in her curiousity. If she truly could do magic and was a witch, that would explain some unusual events which happened around her. Hermione hadn't ever known why some of these things happened. But the whole point of witches was that they could cast spells and put curses on their enemies (at least according to the stories). So then why couldn't Hermione control hers?

She grew more and more frustrated as she stomped up the stairs to her room. She sat down again at her desk, when she felt an odd tingling sensation in her arms. Her desk started to rattle underneath her, lifting up a few inches from the floor.

Excitement flooded Hermione. This was the sort of proof she had been searching for within herself. This odd feeling combined with odd circumstances?

She did not sleep that night, trying with all her might to summon the tingling again, but without success.


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione spent the morning mooching around and waiting uneasily for something unusual to happen. She didn't even touch her books, just waited at the window. Surely the owl would return? And it'd better return with a reply for her. But Hermione wasn't really sure what else to do.

Around nine in the morning, she'd had enough. She grabbed a piece of notebook paper and scrawled out a note to herself before sticking it out the window and saying, "Letter!". Nothing happened. She scowled before calling out, "Letter for Hogwarts!"

The same thing occurred today as had occurred yesterday; a feathered blur swept in and perched on the sill, and Hermione still hyperventilated. That was odd. Maybe this mail system was only for school letters? The bird did have something attached to it though, which Hermione hastened to untie. It looked at her with consternation when she failed to attach another note soon after and she gave an apologetic smile. It flew away and she immediately felt foolish. What kind of person apologized to a bird anyways?

She supposed that she did now, and it seemed like the right thing to do, so maybe witches and wizards did. Oh, she wanted to have lots of books about all of this! Books made sense, and they would help her make sense of this situation.

Hermione picked up this new letter, checking the back and verifying that it was indeed adressed to her. Her name was written in the same way as yesterday, but in green ink today. She fumbled with the seal but was so impatient that she tore the envelope to get the letter out, which was something that just wasn't done by Hermione. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

The letter was pretty brief, congratulating her on her acceptance and informing her that term began September 1st, nearly a year from now. Why would they send her the letter now, though? Nothing really special had happened recently. Just a test in math on Tuesday and her birthday on Wednesday. And an 11th birthday was hardly an extraordinary milestone. Plus, they probably didn't even know when her birthday was. Her address could be found in a directory, but dates like that didn't typically pop up there.

More excitingly, it informed her that supplies could be purchased at Diagon Alley, accessible by Floo (whatever that was supposed to mean) or by an entrance at the Leaky Cauldron Pub in London. Hermione smiled; finally she had something to go on!

Her smile faded as she realized that she really didn't, not without explaining this to her parents. Few parents would be pleased to drop their 11-year old daughter off at a pub in the middle of London with no explanation and the Grangers were no exceptions.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione grabbed both her letters and left her room and went downstairs, where her parents were relaxing in the living room, reading the weekend paper.

"Mum? Dad? I have something I need to talk to you about."

They both slowly put down their papers and looked up at her patiently.

"I think that I'm a witch."

Her parents both looked very confused, and Hermione reflected that she really could have led with something else.

"I'll start again. Could the two of you read these letters to yourselves? It'll make this all so much easier."  
She perched on a chair in awkward silence as her parents devoured the letters before looking up at her, eyes laughing.

"What a funny joke, Hermione," her mother laughed. "What drove you to come up with this."

She looked at them, frustrated, but knowing that their reactions were no different than her own had been. Most normal, rational people would dismiss the idea of magic as a mere joke. Hermione tried her best to explain the situation with the owls (she didn't dare to broach the floating desk incident), but her parents were still chuckling about it. She grabbed her note from earlier and opened the window.

"If you don't believe me, I'll show you!" she said, thrusting her hand out and calling out the window again. The owl appeared, causing her parents to jump. It looked thoroughly put out, and she whispered a quiet apology to it before turning back to her parents.

They leaned forward, clearly far more interested in what she had been saying.


End file.
